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Turkish FM, economy minister to visit Qatar amid diplomatic row

Posted on Thursday, June 22, 2017 by Willis Stokes

Qatar's ties with Iran, with whom it shares a major offshore natural gas field, is another criticism of the Arab countries. The bloc's actions are "aimed at putting the State of Qatar, its citizens and residents under pressure to achieve political purposes".

"With this base, Turkey aims to enhance the cooperation between Turkey and Qatar as well as with the other Gulf states", he said. Monday, Saudi Arabia's state news agency said the move to cut ties was to "protect national security from the dangers of terrorism and extremism".

But praising the newest sale between the two nations, US Pentagon released a statement which said the US and Qatari defence ties will be "strengthened".

Cavusoglu also said he would visit Kuwait later Wednesday and meet Saudi Arabian king Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud on Friday in Mecca.

While Trump appeared to back Saudi Arabia and Tillerson took a more neutral tone, the Defence Department underscored its relations with Qatar, saying the USA was grateful to the country for its support of the United States presence there.

Turkeysent its foreign minister to Qatar on Wednesday as part of a drive to fix the rift with fellow Gulf Arab states.

Cavusoglu met Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in Doha as well as Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani as Ankara steps up its efforts to solve the standoff.

"I decided, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, our great generals and military people, the time had come to call on Qatar to end its funding, they have to end that funding and its extremist ideology", CNN quoted Trump, as saying".

The ministry said Qatar had been an "impartial diplomatic mediator" in resolving border disputes between Eritrea and Djibouti.

"We encourage all our partners in the region to work towards common solutions that enable regional security", Lieutenant Colonel Damien Pickart, a spokesman for US Air Forces Central Command, said in a statement when the crisis began. Qatar denied the accusations, calling the moves to diplomatically isolate it "unjustified". Analysts have also said that the dispute is driving by a belief that Qatar is too closely aligned with Iran. Gulf nations have stationed troops in both African countries, using that as a jumping-off point for the ongoing Saudi-led war in Yemen. "The blockade is also impairing USA and other worldwide business activities in the region and has created a hardship on the people of Qatar and the peoples whose livelihoods depend on commerce with Qatar".